Overview
- Company disclosures place the total above $8 billion for roughly July 2024 to July 2025, up from $6 billion reported for 2021–22.
- Spotify reported $10 billion paid to the music industry in 2024, underscoring YouTube’s progress yet smaller overall outlay.
- YouTube cites more than 125 million Music and Premium subscribers, including trials, and about 2 billion logged-in monthly music video viewers as growth drivers.
- Payments flow to a range of rights holders, including labels, publishers, songwriters and artists, rather than solely to performers.
- Lyor Cohen first shared the milestone at Billboard Latin Music Week, and at least one outlet noted a slight discrepancy on whether the 12-month window ended in June or July 2025.